Is your Sage 50 Accounts Data File too big?

Are you experiencing problems with your data management within Sage 50 Accounts? If so, your data file might be too big and you’ll need to delete older data such as customer and supplier records, audit trail transactions, and customer invoices that you no longer want to review regularly.

In this article we’ll explain how to use the Sage Data Management feature to monitor your accounts data file, and help you remove any unnecessary data that could be slowing it down.

Check that Data Management is switched on

Firstly, you’ll need to check that your Sage 50 Accounts Data Management is switched on. To do this follow the steps below:

• Click Settings, click Company Preferences.
• If prompted, enter your password, then click Parameters.
• Ensure the Enable Data management check box is selected, then click OK.

When the Data Management tool is switched on it will alert you when you are nearing the data volume recommendations with a notification at the top right of your software window.

What should I do when the data management notification appears?

Once you’ve established that the data management tool is running, you might notice a View Data Management notification at the top of your Sage 50 Accounts software.

If you notice this pop-up, you’ll need to follow the steps below to keep your software running efficiently.

• Ensure you’re logged into your company as either manager, an administrator user, or a user with full access.
• Ask other users to log out of the company.
• Click the View Data management link in the top-right corner of your software.
• In the Welcome to Data management window, click Continue.

Once you’ve done this, the Backup and archive window will appear. Find out what to do with this in the following section.

Backup and archive your data

Before you go ahead with removing any your Sage 50 Accounts data, you’ll need to save a backup first. Doing this gives you a secure version of your data for future reference or compliance reasons. You can also create an archive which will allow you to view the data and run reports at any time.

To backup your data before you delete anything, follow these steps

• In the Backup and archive window, click Backup.
• Check the file name and location and amend if required, then click OK.
• Once the backup is complete, click Archive.
• Check the Description and amend if required, then click OK.
• Now you’ve taken copies of your data, click Continue.

Once you’ve followed those steps, the Data review window will appear.

Reviewing your Sage 50 Accounts Data

The data review window gives you an overview of the data you currently have stored in your Sage 50 Accounts software. It will show you the current number of transactions, invoices, customer records, and supplier records, and how they compare to the recommended limits.

If the Sage Data Management tool indicates that you are approaching or exceeding the recommendation you will need to delete some of your records. You can delete audit trail transactions, remove invoices, remove customer records and remove supplier records.

Deleting audit trail transactions

• Click Clear audit trail.
• Enter the date you want to remove transactions up to. We recommend you keep at least one financial year of live data.
• To increase the number of transactions that can be removed, you can choose to switch off bank reconciliation for bank accounts that have not been reconciled in at least 12 months. To do this, select the Turn off bank rec check box for the required bank account.
• To remove completed transactions dated up to the date you specified, click Clear audit trail.

Removing invoices

• Click Delete invoices.
• Enter the date you want to remove invoices up to. We recommend you keep at least one financial year of live data.
• To remove invoices dated up to the date you specified, click Delete invoices.
• Once the invoices are deleted, click OK.

Removing customer records

• Click Review customer records.
• Enter the last invoice date you want to remove records up to.A list of customers eligible for deletion and which have a last invoice date up to the date you specified is displayed.
• Select the customer records you want to remove.

Removing supplier records

• Click Review supplier records.
• Enter the last invoice date you want to remove records up to.A list of suppliers eligible for deletion and which have a last invoice date up to the date you specified is displayed.
• Select the supplier records you want to remove.TIP: To select all records, click Select all. To select a range of records hold down SHIFT and click the first and last record in the range. To select multiple individual records, hold down CTRL and click each required record.
• To remove the selected records, click Delete selected records.
• Once the records are removed, click OK.

 

The above steps are taken from the Sage Knowledgebase where you can find a range of helpful articles and ‘how to’ guides.